The Better-Late-Than-Never Dept.

Between getting married, two honeymoons on two continents, and several simultaneous job deadlines, I've been meaning to pimp the following recent books upon their initial release. So without further ado, a few titles that have released within the last couple of months...
STAR TREK -- CRUCIBLE: KIRK / THE STAR TO EVERY WANDERING (David R. George III / Pocket Books)
The third book in Pocket Books' epic CRUCIBLE trilogy, which commemorated the 40th Anniversary of the original STAR TREK series....put all three paperback covers together, and it forms a triptych.






X-MEN: THE RETURN -- (Chris Roberson / Pocket Books)
THE UNCANNY X-MEN was my favorite comic book when I was a kid, so doing this cover was something of a dream come true...a pleasure to see this book out in stores as it was a collaboration with an editor (Jennifer Heddle) and an author that I root mightily for...






ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE / SFBC Omnibus -- (Charles Stross)
With the recent very unfortunate personnel moves over at the SFBC, I'm not sure what the availability will be on this book. Again, very best wishes out to Andrew Wheeler and Ellen Asher.






NEBULA AWARDS SHOWCASE 2007 (edited by Mike Resnick / Roc Books)
I didn't illustrate or design this cover, but I wrote an essay called "To Boldly Go: A Strange, Beautiful Future for Genre Cover Art," which is included along with some of the finest short stories of the past year.

THE MARGARETS

Here's the cover illustration for the forthcoming Sheri S. Tepper hardcover, THE MARGARETS (HarperCollins/Eos). I've seen an advance copy of the book and while I'm really happy with the way the illustration printed on the jacket, unfortunately if you look at the jacket end flap, you won't know the art is by me. The company made a mistake and printed the wrong illustration credit. Really disappointing, since I'm proud to be a part of this book. In the art department's defense, these things happen. When you consider the vast number of jobs that go through a hard-working art department at a big company like HarperCollins, it's actually amazing that these things happen so seldom. So oh well....the good thing is that they're all great folks over there, and apologies were swift and sincere. We'll do plenty more covers together down the road. Now that you know who really did the cover art, check out THE MARGARETS when it hits stores everywhere next week!

BRITISH SUMMERTIME

Here's the cover for the forthcoming American release of Paul Cornell's BRITISH SUMMERTIME (MonkeyBrain). I did the illustration and cover design on this one. Paul's a favorite writer amongst DOCTOR WHO fans, and it's terrific to see his work getting more and more buzz stateside.

A THOUSAND DEATHS

Here's my wraparound cover illustration for the forthcoming George Alec Effinger collection, A THOUSAND DEATHS. Golden Gryphon Press is the publisher, and it's their third Effinger collection. This one has a foreword by Mike Resnick and an afterword by Andrew Fox. I believe the book will be available everywhere by June 1st.

Pyr editorial director Lou Anders was kind enough to mention that there's a terrific review for the book in the May 7th issue of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. It reads as follows, "A heartfelt homage to the late (and largely underappreciated) SF author Effinger (1947-2002), this intimate collection of stories revolving around his literary alter ego, hapless genre writer and editor Sandor Courane, offers a poignant glimpse into the author's psyche. Central to the collection is The Wolves of Memory, a deeply allegorical novel in which Courane, banished from Earth by the computerized overlord TECT after numerous career failures, finds himself exiled on a bleak world where he and other outcasts slowly succumb to an alien neurological disorder. Struggling with increasing memory loss and the deterioration of his body, Courane finally finds what he has been seeking all along: fulfillment. Also included are seven sardonic short stories that pit the ill-fated Courane against, among other things, a bibliophilic time traveler and a witch who lives off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A touching afterword by Andrew Fox as well as visually stunning cover art by John Picacio make this bittersweet collection one to be cherished."

According to Lou (who knows PUBLISHERS WEEKLY a lot better than I do), apparently the magazine rarely mentions cover art in their reviews, so that makes it even nicer that they singled out the illustration. Thanks, PW.